Survivors in spite of: incredible stories of the struggle for life

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

When we watch films in which heroes in trouble are desperately fighting for their lives, we feel that survival skills are not useful to us. However, any of us can face mortal danger.

For example, schoolgirl Juliana Kepke, who got up after the plane crashed from a height of 3 thousand meters, had to survive in the rainforest. And the sailor Poon Lim was lost on a lonely raft in the ocean for several months, but he came up with so many tricks to save himself that Indiana Jones would have envied him.

We sincerely believe in the strength of the human spirit, so we want to tell you stories about people who managed to say “Not today” to death, even when there was almost no chance left.

Juliana Kepke: after the plane fell from a height of 3 thousand meters, she got up and walked through the jungle

Juliana Kepke not only survived a plane crash from a height of 3 thousand meters (the only one on board), but also made her way through the jungle to people for 9 days. On that ill-fated flight on December 24, 1971, a 17-year-old student from a Peruvian school flew with her mother on Christmas holidays to her father. About half an hour after takeoff, lightning struck the plane and a fire broke out. The aircraft crashed into the rainforest.

Juliana regained consciousness only the next day, and was able to get up after about 4 days. She found a supply of candy among the rubble and limped slowly through the jungle. Remembering her father's lessons in survival, the young passenger moved down the stream.

On the ninth day, Juliana discovered a motorboat containing a can of fuel. The girl poured fuel on her bitten hand, thus getting rid of the larvae and insects. And then she waited for the owners of the boat - local lumberjacks, who treated her wounds and took her to the nearest hospital.

Juliana's story served as the basis for the movie Miracles Still Happen, which helped save another girl in a similar situation. On August 24, 1981, 20-year-old Larisa Savitskaya was returning with her husband from a honeymoon trip to Blagoveshchensk when the An-24 plane began to fall.

Remembering the film, Larisa tried to take the most advantageous position in her chair. Her husband was killed. The girl, although she received serious injuries, was still able to build herself a temporary shelter from the wreckage of the aircraft. After 2 days, rescuers found her.

Mauro Prosperi: spent 9 days in the desert without a map, food and half a bottle of water

Mauro Prosperi is an Italian who got lost in the desert, but managed to survive after 9 days of wandering. It all happened in 1994, when a 39-year-old man decided to take part in a 6-day Sahara marathon. During the race, a sandstorm arose and Prosperi lost his route. There were no other participants in the marathon at that moment.

The marathon runner continued to move and eventually came across the hermit's house. For a while, he ate the bats he found there. The man had half a bottle of water with him, but he took care of it and for 3 days was forced to drink his own urine. The situation seemed hopeless, and Prosperi was preparing for death - he even wrote his wife a farewell note. However, death was in no hurry to come, and the Italian realized that he had to fight for life further. Then he decided to leave the house and continued on his way.

Prosperi remembered the advice he had once received: if you get lost, follow the clouds that you see on the horizon in the morning. And so he did. On the eighth day, a miracle happened: he saw an oasis. The traveler enjoyed the water for 6 hours before continuing on through the desert. On the ninth day, Prosperi saw goats and a shepherd girl and realized that there were people somewhere nearby, which meant that he was saved. The girl took him to the Berber camp. Local women fed the stranger and called the police.

Ricky Migi: spent 10 weeks in the australian desert catching frogs and grasshoppers

Australian Ricky Migi is one of those who are called the modern-day Robinsons Crusoe. In January 2006, he found himself in the Australian desert and spent 10 weeks there with no food or water. In his own words, it all happened after he gave a lift to a stranger and passed out, and then came to himself in some kind of pit. According to another version, his car broke down.

Wearing a sun T-shirt over his head, the man moved in an arbitrary direction in the mornings and evenings when the heat subsided. To save himself from dehydration, he drank his own urine. On the tenth day, Ricky went to the river. However, instead of going downstream, he went in the opposite direction. There were no people on the way, and Ricky built himself a shelter of stones and branches. He had to feed on leeches, frogs, ants and grasshoppers. At the same time, he ate leeches raw, and dried grasshoppers in the sun. The man "cooked" only frogs.

As a result of this "diet" the Australian has become like a living skeleton. Gathering his strength, he nevertheless decided to continue on his way and was soon discovered by a farmer, who took him to the hospital. Riki Migi himself later wrote a book about his adventures. By the way, his car was never found.

Ada Blackjack: single-handedly survived among polar bears in the Arctic for months

Ada Blackjack managed to survive alone in the Arctic, where she was dangerously close to polar bears for several months. She was 23 when in August 1921 she went with polar explorers on an expedition to Wrangel Island as a seamstress.

A ship was supposed to arrive the following summer with food and letters, but it never showed up. In January 1923, three polar explorers went to the mainland for help, while Ada and the fourth polar explorer, who started having health problems, remained. Now she also had to look after the patient, and he took out his anger on her. The polar explorer died in early summer, and Ada was left alone. She did not even have the strength to bury him. To prevent the polar bears from entering the dwelling, Ada blocked the entrance with boxes. She herself began to live in the pantry. The girl set traps for the Arctic foxes, and also caught birds. In the forced Arctic captivity, she kept a diary and even learned to photograph. On August 19, 1923, she was rescued by a ship that arrived at Wrangel Island.

Juana Maria: spent on the island all alone for over 18 years

The story of Juana Maria, the last of the Nicoleno Indian tribe, is no less difficult: she had to live alone on a deserted island for more than 18 years. By the way, this was her native island of San Nicholas, from where in 1835 the Americans decided to take out all the Indians in order to introduce them to civilization. The "rescue operation" was not successful: once on the continent, all the aborigines perished without even living a year. Their organisms were simply not ready for local diseases.

Juana Maria was left alone on her home island. According to some reports, she was forgotten, according to others, she jumped off the ship herself and sailed back to the island. At first she lived in a cave, hiding from the hunters from the "civilized world". For food, she collected bird eggs and caught fish. When the hunters sailed away, Juana Maria built herself a dwelling with whale bones and seal skins. This is how Juana Maria lived until she was discovered by a sea otter hunter in 1853.

The name under which she went down in history, the woman received after her salvation. Interestingly, despite such a long isolation, the last of the tribe Nicoleno retained a clear mind. True, she could only communicate with her savior by gestures: he did not know the language in which she spoke. The hunter took her to his home on the continent, wanting to help her. However, after 7 weeks of being there, the woman died as a result of bacterial dysentery - the same disease that claimed the lives of her fellow tribesmen.

Tami Eshkraft: lasted 40 days on a broken yacht in the ocean, hearing the ghostly voice of the groom

Tami Oldham Ashcraft is an American woman who spent 40 days on a yacht in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and managed to escape. The story happened in 1983, when the girl, together with her lover Richard Sharp, sailed on the yacht "Khazan" from Tahiti to San Diego. Lovers who were going to get married have already covered this distance more than once. But this time there was a strong hurricane. The ship capsized, the man was literally thrown out of the life jacket, and the girl hit her head hard and lost consciousness.

She regained consciousness only a day later. Tami realized that her fiancé had died and that the radio and engine were out of order. Also, there wasn't much food. About 2 days passed, and the girl pulled herself together: she decided to fight for her life. By moving all the load to one side and using strong waves, she was able to turn the yacht over. She built a temporary sail from scrap materials, corrected the yacht's course with the help of a sextant, a navigational measuring instrument. She also managed to make a container for collecting dew and rainwater, where she ate the remains of supplies and fished a little. According to her, she was helped by the ghostly voice of a deceased loved one. The Khazana yacht entered the Hawaiian port itself 40 days after the disaster - the ship, of course, has long been ranked among the sunken. And Tami herself, who lost 18 kg, was later able to survive the terrible depression that tormented her. She met another man, married him and even found the strength not to give up sailing.

Poon Lim: lived 133 days in the ocean on a raft, fought a shark and came up with many tricks for survival

Pun Lim (Pan Lian) is a Chinese sailor who was in the open ocean even longer than Tami - as much as 133 days on a small raft. In 1942 he sailed on the British merchant ship Ben Lomond, where he served as a steward, from Cape Town to South America. However, the ship was attacked by a German submarine. Once in the water, Poon Lim noticed an empty raft drifting lonely in the ocean. This was his salvation.

The raft had a supply of fresh water for 2 days, as well as cans, condensed milk, chocolate. To avoid muscle atrophy, the sailor tied himself with a thin ship's rope to the raft and sailed in the sea. But it was impossible to continue "charging" for a long time, because he could attract sharks to him. Poon Lim collected rainwater from the tent and fished. He made a fishing rod himself: he took apart the flashlight, pulled out a spring from it and twisted it into hooks; a loose rope became the fishing line, and the remnants of canned ham turned into bait.

The next time he caught a seagull using a trap he made from a tin can, seaweed and dried fish. And then, using the seagull as bait, he caught the shark and dragged it onto the raft. The sailor fought the sea predator with a homemade knife he made from a nail. It is noteworthy that 2 ships saw the raft, but did not help the man. Finally the raft itself approached the Brazilian coast. The sailor was taken to the hospital. As it turned out, Poon Lim got off easy: he had sunburns on his skin, and he himself lost only 9 kg.

Lisa Teris: spent 28 days in the forest without survival skills

Alabama student Lisa Teris spent nearly a month in the woods all alone. It all started on July 23, 2017: the girl was with two of her friends when they decided to rob a hunting lodge. Liza ran away from them and found herself completely alone - without water, food, warm clothes and other necessary things.

The 25-year-old city woman did not have any orientation skills, and she wandered through the forest in circles, unable to find the road. The girl did not even have special knowledge about what can and cannot be eaten in the forests of Alabama, so she ate what she found under her feet and what seemed suitable to her, such as berries and mushrooms. She took water from a stream.

During this time, the girl lost about 23 kg. At some point, she managed to get out to the motorway. It was a rather deserted area, but a woman passing by accidentally noticed her and stopped to help: Lisa was covered with insect bites, bruises and scratches, she was not wearing shoes. The woman called the police. Lisa's family was happy to learn that she was alive.

How do you think you would behave in these situations?